New Beginnings
by Katah
Summary: 25 Cagalli-centric drabbles for an LJ community challenge, posted five at a time and focused on 'firsts'. Mostly gen, but with some pairings; primarily A/C. In this instalment: first birth, memory, father/daughter moment, funeral, and enemy.


his was written for the 'bigthingsinlife' LJ community, which basically has prompts for a character's first , where I claimed Cagalli. There are twenty-five prompts in all, and I'll be posting them five at a time. The timelines for these vary, but hopefully they're fairly self-explanatory. I'm not entirely happy with all of them, especially the fourth, but hopefully they're good enough. Mostly gen, with varyingly subtle hints of Athrun/Cagalli, Kira/Lacus, Mwu/Murrue, Dearka/Yzak and Cagalli/Kira.

Edit: This is the proper version now, without the silly copy error! Thanks to asga and moi for letting me know!

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**first birth ; on children**

Cagalli missed the birth of her third niece because of traffic and an unexpected labour. She missed the second niece's birth because of a major diplomatic incident involving a photographer, a closet, and two senior ZAFT officers (but even Kira agreed it had been worth it for the look on Athrun's face when she told him the news). She was, however, present at her first niece's birth, for all sixteen gruelling hours of poor Lacus' labour. Once the child was born and Kira had regained consciousness, she had turned to Athrun, a grave expression on her face. "We're _never_ having children," she had informed him without a hint of humour.

Six years later, en route to the hospital, Athrun took it upon himself to remind her of that vow, and very nearly received a broken nose for his troubles.

* * *

**first enemy ; this means war**

They didn't understand her. Cagalli tried to tell herself that it didn't matter.

It wasn't as though anyone in Desert Dawn treated her badly; no, quite the opposite. She was their goddess of victory, except instead of blessings, she bestowed guns and money to her loyal subjects. She'd realised quickly that running away from her family name hadn't been quite enough, not when she'd brought her family fortune with her. She wasn't a princess in the desert, but she might as well have been.

And so, she decided to fight. It wasn't that hard to temper her feelings towards ZAFT into the kind of hatred that would let her take their lives, and whenever she felt her resolve shake, she thought of the cute boy from Heliopolis with the kind eyes – thought of the home that had been stolen from him by _them_. The enemy.

Her enemy.

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**first memory ; sibling rivalry**

It had been six days after Kira and Mwu's return from the Mendel colony when Cagalli had remembered. She'd been halfway inside the Strike Rouge at the time, and the sheer shock of it had caused her hit her head and almost give herself a concussion. Explaining that down at Kusanagi's medical bay had been an experience in itself, and it seemed she'd beaten out Dearka's stubbed toe for the 'stupidest injury sustained whilst on duty' stakes.

"It might be that you're making up a memory based on the photograph," Athrun had suggested as gently as possible – he too was unable to keep the mirth from showing in his eyes, even as he helped fix the bandage around her head. "Since you only found out Kira's your older brother so recently..."

_"Cagalli!" A beautiful woman with dark hair and soft eyes like Kira's was leaning over her, a gentle smile on her face. Her tone was scolding, but also amused. "Don't pull your little brother's hair!"  
_  
Cagalli blinked, shaking her head. "I told you," she smirked. "I'm definitely the older one! I mean, just look at that guy, he's _obviously _my baby brother..." Whether her memories were real or not certainly wouldn't change _that_.

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**first father/daughter moment ; fairytale princess**

Even at age four, ORB's princess was an exceedingly stubborn and wilful child. She was also, her father had noted with a mixture of pride and dismay, becoming increasingly curious and precocious. Such a combination was problematic at times.

Times like now. "And then what?" Cagalli demanded, leaning forwards. Reading children bedtime stories was supposed to put them to sleep, so why did she look more awake than ever?

"Then," Uzumi frowned, scanning the page. That was the fourteenth time Cagalli had interrupted, and her interruptions were usually just prompts to continue. "The prince rode towards the castle-"

"No!" Cagalli heaved a great sigh, giving him a look as if to question why all adults were so incomprehensibly stupid. She crossed her arms. "What did the princess do?"

"What?" Uzumi frowned. He was beginning to suspect that Cagalli's caretakers were terribly underpaid, if this experience were anything to go by. "She," he glanced over the page again. "was being held prisoner by the evil chancellor. She didn't do anything."

"That's stupid," Cagalli announced, pouting and crawling out of the bad, edging over to sit next to him, as if she had to confirm it for herself. She couldn't actually _read_, but the pictures seemed to support what her father had told her. "Look, she's not even tied up or anything! Why can't she just punch him or kick him or something?"

The caretakers were definitely underpaid. "The chancellor is stronger than she is," Uzumi attempted. Cagalli's expression grew stormier. "She might be hurt if she tried to fight him."

"Who cares?" Cagalli demanded, looking quite agitated now. "What kind of stupid princess just depends on a prince to save her?! She should at least try, even if she gets hurt! Besides," she jabbed at the picture of the chancellor. "He's old! She could take him! And hey, look, there's even a sword on the wall, she could just take it and stab him and..."

Uzumi was getting the distinct feeling he'd been set up. 'Cagalli would love it if you'd read her a bedtime story', her primary caretaker had said, waving a book of fairytales in his face. With the hectic political situation and rising tensions between Naturals and Coordinators, he'd had little time for quality time with his daughter. Or, to put it more bluntly, it had seemed like a good idea at the time, and how hard could reading a four-year-old a bedtime story possibly be?

"That's..." Uzumi attempted to think, plot out the best course of action. Time for a new plan. "exactly what happened." Cagalli's eyes lit up. "Now, if you get back under the covers, I'll tell you what happened next."

The little girl nodded excitedly, scrambling back underneath the covers and looking at him expectantly. Uzumi cleared his throat. "The princess took the sword from the mantle and lunged towards the chancellor..."

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**first funeral ; apologies**

"I'm so sorry," she found herself murmuring over and over again. "So sorry."

She thought to herself that she ought to have known Commander la Flaga better. Ought to have had something more to say than 'I'm sorry' to his comrades that she'd never met. _That we may have fought against. _He'd been a brave man, she knew that – a terribly brave man, and a terribly good soldier. Captain Ramius had loved him; Kira had looked up to him; Cagalli had clashed with him earlier on, but she had built up a great respect for him, and she found herself desperately hoping that in the end, he had come to return that respect, even slightly.

Because truly, he was right; she hadn't understood what she –what ORB, what Kira, what Lacus Clyne, what _all of them_- had asked. 'Betray your country, betray your comrades – help us fight for true freedom and justice.' It was so much more complicated than fighting for what you believed in.

She stepped towards the empty casket –they'd looked and looked, but couldn't find a trace of his body, she was _so sorry_- and placed one hand on the cool mahogany. It was the first funeral she had attended; it would not be the last. And only now, when it was too late to tell him, did she truly understand what they had asked. "Commander," she murmured softly, bowing her head. "I'm so sorry..."

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